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About The Take Five Method

The Take Five Method™ is designed as a supplementary program to help relieve stress, tightness, aches and pains that build up during your busy day. The five-minute segments work as a compliment to your ongoing fitness and stretching programs, not in place of them.

While countless excellent books and research studies have been written on proper stretching programs, few experts agree on exactly how and when to stretch. The most common modes include: active, passive, ballistic, static, dynamic, Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF), Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) and Isometric Stretching. Each technique is distinctly different.

Overwhelmed? Well, you’re not alone.

The one thing experts do agree on is that flexibility and unrestricted range of motion translate into improved health and performance – and simply feeling your best.

Our Technique:

The Take Five Segments utilize a blend of the most effective techniques and research in the fields of stretching and other therapeutic movements.

Each segment follows a few basic principles.

1. Stretch to Tightness, Never Pain.

With all moves, you should always feel comfortable. In other words, stretch only to the point of tightness, never pain.

To help ease you into the segments, each focuses on one area and begins with a move to loosen the area first. In the neck segment, for example, we begin with a move that loosens your upper and mid back, then go into specifc moves for the neck.

2. Check Your Posture and Position.

It’s important to start each segment by first checking your posture. Hips should be tucked forward (so you don’t have a sway back), shoulders should be comfortably back and down, and your chin should never be poked forward.

Once you’ve checked your posture, the voice-over guides you into the proper position for each move.

3. Five Counts Per Position: Four Quick, One Longer.

Each position has five counts. We start with 4 two- to three- second moves to warm the muscles and bring blood and oxygen to the area. On the fifth count, we hold the position a few seconds longer for a deeper stretch.

Although the stretches move at a brisk pace, you should never bounce. Instead, you move gently into the specifc position, hold for two or three seconds, then ease back into the starting position.

4. Assist Gently to Enhance the Move

In many of the moves, you’ll assist gentle with your opposite hand. This enables you to increase your range of motion. But the assistance must be light. You never crank your neck, for example, to increase your range of motion. This will only damage already tight tissue.

5. Keep Breathing

Breathing is paramount in all stretch techniques. Always exhale as you move into the stretch and inhale as you return to the starting position.

Tutorials First

To ensure you’re executing each move properly, a tutorial (ten minutes or less) is provided for each segment. We urge you to use the tutorials first. When you’re comfortable with the routines, you can use the five-minute segment.

Combine Segments

If you have more than five minutes, you can combine two or more of the segments.

Customize Segments

Segments can be customized for group environments – from workplace to the playing field to the classroom and everything in between.

Automatic Reminders

If you desire, you can program reminders to pop up at specified intervals so you don’t forget to -- Take Five!